Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Crocuses again

After my piano lesson today, I walked across Bruntsfield Links, among the crocuses.

I wouldn't care for a purple and yellow dress, but it does look good as a spring splash of colour.

Then I crossed the Meadows on my way down to Princes Street. As I did so, I thought of my maternal grandfather, who lived near here as a boy and played various sports in the Meadows. (The sporting gene didn't come down to my brother and me.) It's a wonderful green space which, in warm weather, is full of young people playing games or sunbathing or picnicking - it's near university buildings and residences. Not that my grandfather was able to go to university, though he was a clever man. He became a compositor - printer - the person who set the type, in mirror image; so he had to be able to spell backwards. He would have liked to be a doctor, but there was no money in the family for education past the age of - I don't know - fourteen, I imagine.

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Mind you, he was a bit grumpy and opinionated. Not sure that he would have made a very soothing doctor.

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The potential buyers are sending a surveyor to inspect my mum's flat tomorrow. Let's hope he doesn't see any snags.

My American Grandfather was a typesetter, and my English one ran a print shop. He had wanted to go to Grammar School, but was pushed into an apprenticeship instead, his family couldn't afford for him to pursue an academic career either.

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About Me

I'm a retired English teacher and live with my husband in Edinburgh. I enjoy reading, gardening, singing and walking; and making fairly simple quilts. Our children are all married. Daughter 1 lives in Edinburgh and is the mother of the much-loved Grandson and Granddaughter-the-Elder. Daughter 2 lives in London, 350 miles to the south. Son lives 65 miles to the north and is the father of the dear baby Granddaughter-the-Younger.
I'm very conscious that time is passing and would prefer not to fritter my time away. But I sometimes do.